Angela McKay - Female - United States - Missouri » Tartan Footprint

Some songs can change your life! I'd like to share with you all that changed mine... "Neil Gow's Lament for His Second Wife."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2PQDiJyHg0
Neil Gow was a musician/...

Some songs can change your life! I'd like to share with you all that changed mine... "Neil Gow's Lament for His Second Wife."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2PQDiJyHg0
Neil Gow was a musician/composer in 18c. Scotland. He played for all the landed gentry in the Perth area. This particular song, however, is not for country dancing... it is a true lament as only the Scots can do.
I purchased a CD, whose description promised an authentic recording of 18c. Scottish music performed without manipulation of sound room device in Blair Castle and also performed on Gow's actual fiddle. Tract #15 was Gow's Lament for his Second Wife, who was obviously the love of his life. He never gave it a proper name (he couldn't bear it) and he composed it for one fiddle and one cello (Gow played the violin and his brother played the cello).
In a word, the piece is "haunting." You will hear of course Gow's deep grief but you will also be met by a part in the song where you feel him indulge in the many happy memories he has of his wife and the married life they shared, only to return to deep mourning again as he realizes he was lost in song....
How did this song change my life? I bought a fiddle! and I learned how to play this song, and in doing so, it sparked a fire in me to learn about roots so deeply anchored in myself that I would quest for why I was moved so by 18c. Scottish music and histories. Because of this song, I would travel to Scotland to investigate some of the instincts that were awakening in myself. One trip would take me to Perth, were I would visit the home where Gow and his beloved Margaret lived and loved together(they were married in Perth in 1768.) While in Perth I stayed at Dougie MacLean's Music Bar and had a lesson from Pete Clark who produced the CD that had wakened me to the rich rewards in finding out who we are and why we love and hate the things we do...that was 15 years ago...
I still play the fiddle; the laments will always be my favorite pieces.... I will never be a great fiddler, but never-the-less, the companionship of that wee spruce box and strings as well as the music and the stories transports me sometimes so that I feel like a queen...
God Bless and Keep you All...
Thanks for the space and time to revisit happy memories ~A

View Less

Play

Neil Gow's Lament

www.youtube.com

Provided to YouTube by Ingrooves Neil Gow's Lament · Dougie MacLean Tribute Writer, Composer: Trad. Arr. Douglas Menzies MacLean Auto-generated by YouTube.

Angela McKay shared a photo

I have been fascinated with the creature pictured above... Anyone care to venture a guess what she is?

Angela McKay

**HINT** Your answer depends on if she is witnessing a sunrise or sunset.

December 24, 2015
·
Like Unlike
·
1 person

Report this entry

Angela McKay is now friends with

william johnstone

Angela McKay is now friends with

Stirling Thompson

Angela McKay is now friends with

Ian Alfred Ferguson

Angela McKay posted on Randy Scott's wall.

what's the story behind yer wall pic, Randy?

Randy Scott likes this.

Report this entry

Sir.Randall Paul Haffley

Jus needed drop in say hi an wishn u
a terrific week ahead ;-)

Angela McKay likes this.

View all 41 comments

william johnstone

plenty of flooding in Dumfries and Galloway today

December 30, 2015
·
Like Unlike
·
1 person

Sir.Randall Paul Haffley

feel so sad oir all de scot families suffering such terrible flooding i pray all are ok

December 30, 2015
·
Like Unlike
·
1 person

Report this entry

Angela McKay liked the page "Scottish Poetry".

See 1 more posts from Angela

Angela McKay

My teenagers didn't understand my taste for pipe music until this group helped me to bridge the gap... "Wicked Tinkers, March of the O'Neills https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpUdpZpVX3w

Play

Wicked Tinkers - LIVE! LOUD! - March of the O'Neills

www.youtube.com

The Wicked Tinkers playing "March of the O'Neills" live at the Claremont Colleges International Festival on 4/14/07.

Deb Logan Nixon likes this.

View all 5 comments

Ian Alfred Ferguson

Angela, I understand what you are saying, my gandchildren are the same but also like sports and music. My eldest two are twin boys ten years old one plays acoustic guitar and the other keyboard. They really enjoy that. Sometimes its hard to get them away from there tablet's.

December 23, 2015
·
Like Unlike
·
0 people

Ian Alfred Ferguson

I am glad I brought back happy memories of your trips to Scotland. I would love to hear your experiences and places you visited. I spent part of my childhood in Inverness.;-)))))

December 23, 2015
·
Like Unlike
·
0 people